Within the backdrop of comparative corporate governance research, we draw on the managerial reporting and impression management literatures to examine how the type, level, and nature of foreign ...shareholders, infused with their own governance logic, influence initial managerial earnings optimism and how foreign ownership shapes earnings guidance in a stakeholder-oriented setting. Drawing on Japanese data, and addressing endogeneity concerns, our results show that under the presence of foreign owners, managers are more optimistic in their initial earnings forecasts, but that in subsequent revisions they are more likely to provide timely adjustments of their earnings forecast and avoid making last-minute adjustments. This research illustrates how foreign practices travel across borders and contributes to understanding triggers to governance and strategic changes.
Business scandals are always with us from the South Sea Bubble to Enron and Parmalat. As accounting forms a central element of any business success or failure, the role of accounting is crucial in ...understanding business scandals. This book aims to explore the role of accounting, particularly creative accounting and fraud, in business scandals. The book is divided into three parts. In Part A the background and context of creative accounting and fraud is explored. Part Blooks at a series of international accounting scandals andPart Cdraws some themes and implications from the country studies.
Consistent with the social and institutional paradigm, countries with similar cultures, such as Italy and Spain, may show similar trends in the development of accounting research. This article ...develops a Comparative International Accounting History perspective, which is aimed at comparing accounting history subjects and themes in different countries. This research analyses publication patterns in accounting, understanding emerging topics and fields. It compares the last 20 years of Italian and Spanish accounting journals, developing a content analysis of each issue in the 20-year time frame from 1994 to 2014. Highlighting common trends and insights, this article adds to previous literature that examines publishing patterns of research in accounting journals from a historical point of view. It demonstrates that accounting research is developing beyond the institutional paradigm, showing an internationalisation process and trends consistent with Anglo-Saxon Journals.
•We examine earnings management in insider-controlled firms in East Asian economies.•Family firms engage in less accrual-based earnings management than other owners.•Family firms engage in more real ...earnings management than other owners.•Country-level investor protection shape earnings management in family firms.
In analyzing newly collected data on the ultimate ownership structure of publicly traded firms in nine East Asian economies, we contribute to international accounting research by providing evidence on earnings management in insider-controlled firms in this region. We find that family-controlled firms engage in less (more) accrual-based (real) earnings management than other insider-controlled firms. Our analysis suggests that controlling families, unlike other types of ultimate owners, tend to substitute real earnings management for accrual-based earnings management. To help empirically clarify the role that two incentives (entrenchment versus signaling) play in driving the substitution between real and accruals-based earnings management, we examine their valuation impact and find that both types negatively affect the future valuation of family firms. In another set of results consistent with expectations, we document that country-level investor protection and firm external financing demand shape the practice of earnings management in family-controlled firms.
The diversity in reformed governmental financial information systems created a need for harmonized international accounting standards, resulting in the elaboration of the IPSAS (International Public ...Sector Accounting Standards). By means of a survey on experts, this study examines the extent to which European governments adopt IPSAS accrual accounting and how the differing levels of adoption can be explained. The study reveals diversity in the adoption process of IPSAS and accrual accounting. Some governments still use cash based accounting. Only a minority apply IPSAS. The majority of local and central governments apply accrual accounting disregarding IPSAS. The trend toward accrual accounting can be explained by the need for transparency and efficiency. The fact that the IPSAS are unique and offer specific know-how is the main argument for making use of them. However, a number of jurisdictions do not adopt IPSAS because they transfer their own local business accounting rules.
Points for practitioners
The transition to business accounting is an important element of New Public Management in that modernized governmental management needs useful financial information, and business accounting is supposed to accomplish this need. An important characteristic of the IPSAS accounting standards is that governments are not obliged to adopt them and thus their adoption depends on a free choice. Therefore, it is clear that the success of IPSAS strongly depends on setting out its strengths and highlighting the necessary conditions to be met. Based on this article, an important condition is that practitioners keep in mind that in governments business accrual accounting rules are not a substitute for IPSAS.
Management control systems (MCSs) as formal, routine-based systems that help to maintain or alter organisational activities and guide the behaviour of a firm’s employees are in the focus of normative ...and empirical management accounting research. This article explores the different MCS conceptualisations, named ‘controlling’ approaches, that have been developed over more than 40 years in German-speaking countries. After investigating the underlying theoretical foundations, five major approaches are analysed and compared with each other. This enables readers to perceive and understand the MCS frameworks developed in a non-Anglo-American setting. The common traits and differences between these German frameworks are derived and discussed. Finally, the commonalities and differences in comparison with Anglo-American frameworks are analysed, helping scholars to understand the different traditions and practises of MCSs. The paper intends to inspire future research on common traits of MCSs across cultures and regions and to explore the impact of different national cultures or regions on the design of MCSs.
Accounting practice, whether in business or government, is more dynamic, more complex, and addresses a wider array of issues than it did as little as five years ago. Significant and rapid social, ...political, technological and economic changes are taking place in the world economy and it is increasingly recognised that accountants in all countries play a key role in the process of economic development.Accounting education is undergoing a thorough review on a worldwide basis and major developments are taking place to produce quality accounting education that can keep pace with dramatic world change.This book provides an up-to-date view of the state of accounting education throughout the world and focusses on the global challenges facing accounting education as we approch the millenium.
This paper suggests that accounting and auditing systems can be effective devices to counteract tendencies for firm risk-taking associated with bank safety nets. Results are obtained from an ...international sample of publicly traded banks after controlling for other regulatory control devices for bank risk such as restrictions on banking activities, minimum regulatory capital requirements and official discipline. The efficacy of accounting and auditing systems in controlling bank risk diminishes with bank charter value and increases with moral hazard stemming from a country's deposit insurance. The results also indicate that accounting and auditing systems are complements for minimum capital requirements, but substitutes for restrictions on bank activities and official discipline.
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